Father of two pleads with judge to keep home

AN UNEMPLOYED father of two from Kildare urged the High Court yesterday not to grant an order for possession against him as he “genuinely and honestly” believed his circumstances would change.

The 47-year-old asked the court to take into consideration his chronically ill wife and his two boys at school when deciding whether to grant an order.

More than half of the homes repossessed by lenders yesterday had already been abandoned by their owners, the High Court heard.

Some 13 properties in all were repossessed and in seven cases the owners had already moved out. Some properties were vacant for over a year. One property was described as having a wall missing, another had been broken into and a third had broken windows and damaged doors.

Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne granted four orders for possession to Start Mortgages Ltd and three to KBC Bank. ACC Bank and Stepstone Mortgages received two each and the EBS and IIB Homeloans Ltd received one order each.

ACC had applied for the application against the 47-year-old man and his wife, who had taken out a loan in 2003 for €300,000. They fell into arrears when he was made unemployed and now owed the bank €313,000.

He told the court his parents, in their 70s, had offered to sell property in England to help repay the loan, but the bank had not responded to the offer. They had also offered to be guarantors for the loan, but were rejected.

His wife could not appear in court because she was chronically ill, he said. His 17-year-old son was in his Leaving Certificate year and his 12-year-old son was due to make his Confirmation.

He asked Ms Justice Dunne to consider giving him a nine-month stay, or delay, on any order for possession she might grant.

But, he said, “we do genuinely and honestly believe that our circumstances will change”. He had been to 50 interviews this year alone, he said.

Counsel for the lender said the case had been in the court list 10 times and the current offer had been made in 2009 and was rejected. Only one payment had been made in 18 months and the family had not provided any evidence of capacity to pay.

Ms Justice Dunne said there seemed to be a lack of information coming from the borrower and a lack of any payment.

She told him if he made some small payments it would ease the situation. She agreed to adjourn the case until the end of January, but said the lender must be provided with a statement of affairs and proposals for resolving the matter. She also told the borrower to attend a meeting with the bank before the next court date to make a proposal.

“You may need to consider selling the house,” she said.

In another case involving ACC, the judge gave a repossession order for 17 acres of land in Co Meath against a couple who both attended court. The property was an inheritance and had been rezoned from agricultural to commercial. It had been used to secure a loan to pay the Revenue Commissioners and to fund a haulage business. The bank was owed €238,000, including arrears. The couple told the court they just wanted to sell the land. Ms Justice Dunne granted the order for possession with a stay of four months to give them an opportunity to sell.

Speaking after the hearing, the couple said they were anxious to sell their land and did not want to run away from their debts. There were “sleepless nights and constant pressure”, they said.